Cong. Terry’s bill to speed Keystone XL faces uphill battle

Opposition to the Keystone XL oil pipeline project continues despite House passage of legislation to speed approval of the project.

Nebraska Congressman Lee Terry’s bill made it through the House on a 241-to-175 vote.

Jane Kleeb, spokeswoman for BOLD Nebraska, predicts the bill won’t make it through the Senate.

“It’s really headed nowhere since they don’t have the votes to pass it and the president has already said he’d veto it if it came across his desk,” Kleeb says. “They lost 19 members who voted for the Keystone XL in the past because people are really concerned about risks to the water supply.”

Although the veto threat is real, Kleeb says the likelihood of the president rejecting the project altogether is still uncertain.

“What a 50-50 shot,” Kleeb says. “It’s a difficult decision for the president to keep weighing our Canadian relations with our own American energy independence with our own wind and oil and solar developments that we’re having here in the United States.”

Kleeb says landowners will be making a final push this summer to try and convince the president to turn down TransCanada’s application for the project.